Kant and Metaphysics of Morals
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In Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, Immanuel Kant in Section Three discusses his concept of freedom, beginning with the idea of the will as a kind of causality. The idea that freedom is perfect rationalism is expressed by Kant, and Kant indeed indicates how some actions are determined while others are subject to free will. He shows that those that are performed out of free will are ethically superior. Thus, Kant connects his idea of freedom to his idea of moral duty. Kant distinguishes between acts that are performed out of duty and acts which are performed for the sake of duty, holding that those acts performed in accordance with duty but not from duty have no moral worth. In making this distinction, Kant is setting forth a moral principle in keeping with his view that morality does not derive from nature but from the mind, and it is what is intended that is important rather than what occurs without intent, even if the action is the same. Unless the individual is acting because of a moral duty, the action cannot be considered a moral action. This necessitates free will, for without free will no action could be considered moral or immoral. This relates to Kant's conception of the moral law, and he says that to act for the sake of duty means to act out of reverence for the moral law. Kant says the will is a kind of causality, as noted, and it belongs to living beings to the degree that they are rational. Freedom belongs to this causality so as to make it ef
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l that is good in itself. In Kant's analysis, acting out of duty becomes acting out of a sense of law, meaning moral law. The reverence for moral law is a reverence for the universal. There can be no exceptions to the law, which applies at all times in all situations. Physical and moral laws are both universal, and this raises the issue of what differentiates the two. Physical laws are different because there is no volition involved in living up to these laws. Every person, animal, and object lives by physical laws which they cannot change, and there is no choice involved. Moral actions are of a different order because there is a choice involved, and to have moral worth such actions must be performed out of a sense of duty and out of a reverence for the law. Moral worth is not conferred by the outcome of these actions--doing good works because people will be helped are not automatically moral because of a good outcome. The good will that is created by moral actions is the only good without qualification and must develop from a reverence for the law.
Kant makes the distinction between things as they appear to us and things as they are in themselves, a distinction between appearances and things in themselves. Appearances
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Approximate Word count = 1681
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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